Essential Dragons Beyond Tolkien’s Middle-earth Sara Legard Mythmoot 2 – December 15, 2013

J.R.R. Tolkien, Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics “real dragons, essential both to the machinery and the ideas of a poem or tale, are actually rare” – J.R.R. Tolkien, Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics

Tolkien’s Poetry and Stories with Essential Dragons “The Hoard” poem Farmer Giles of Ham “The Dragon’s Visit” poem Roverandom

Tolkien’s Lectures with Dragon Topics “Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics,” British Academy lecture - 1936 “On Dragons,” Oxford University Museum of Natural History lecture - 1938 “On Fairy-stories,” Andrew Lang Lecture - 1939

Tolkien’s criteria for dragons in northern European tales: Dragon as a mortal denizen of the material world; Dragon as a personification of malice, destruction, and cruel Fortuna; Dragon as a personification of greed and miserliness; Dragon in single-combat, testing a hero’s courage; and Dragon as indicator of Faërie or an Other-world.

“The Hoard” “Iúmonna Gold Galdre Bewunden,” – 1923, 1937 Dragon as a mortal denizen of the material world Dragon as a personification of malice, destruction, and cruel Fortuna Dragon as a personification of greed and miserliness Dragon in single-combat, testing a hero’s courage Dragon as indicator of Faërie or an Other-world

Farmer Giles of Ham Read to Oxford literary society 1938 Published 1949, 1962 Chrysophylax dragon as a mortal denizen of the material world Dragon as a personification of malice, destruction, and cruel Fortuna Dragon as a personification of greed Dragon in single-combat, testing a hero’s courage Dragon as indicator of Faërie or an Other-world

“The Dragon’s Visit” Tales and Songs of Bimble Bay, Oxford Magazine - 1937 Winter’s Tales for Children 1 – 1965 Dragon as a mortal denizen of the material world Dragon as a personification of malice, destruction, and cruel Fortuna Dragon as a personification of greed and miserliness Dragon in single-combat, testing a hero’s courage Dragon as indicator of Faërie or an Other-world

Roverandom Oral story – 1925, 1927 Published posthumously – 1998 Two essential, mythic dragons: the Great White Dragon of the Moon and Sea-serpent Dragon as a mortal denizen of the material world Dragon as a personification of malice, destruction, and cruel Fortuna Dragon as a personification of greed and miserliness Dragon in single-combat, testing a hero’s courage Dragon as indicator of Faërie or an Other-world

The Criteria The Lectures Beowulf: The Monsters and the Critics, 1936 On Dragons, 1938 On Fairy-stories, 1939 The Criteria Dragon as a mortal denizen of the material world; Dragon as a personification of malice, destruction, and cruel Fortuna; Dragon as a personification of greed and miserliness; Dragon in single-combat, testing a hero’s courage; and Dragon as indicator of Faërie or an Other-world.

Tolkien’s Poetry and Stories with Essential Dragons “The Hoard” poem Farmer Giles of Ham “The Dragon’s Visit” poem Roverandom

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